Project Lotus
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: Newbuilt Thetis is appalled when he finds out that airborne Giga City used to be in the ocean. Now he's set on a path to get the city back in the water with aid from his sister, a thief, and a certain Biometal. Little does he know that a Witch and Reaper are in search for a stolen Biometal, and they do not plan on negotiating. [AU][pre-ZXA]
1. WELCOME, Thetis

"Professor… you seem so sad these days. Is something the matter?" Minas asked her creator kindly. Her creator was an animal-based Reploid, designed to look like a platypus. He had designed a pack behind him with four extra hands- they were quite useful for reaching things the Professor could not, and for maneuvering rather complicated tasks.

For the past few days, he had been working on a new Reploid -his first in decades- and the longer he worked on it, the more distraught he seemed to get. Minas wasn't quite sure why, and the thought of it made her upset. She couldn't help her own creator, when he had built her to help everyone- and it made her feel useless.

"The world is so different Cinna- Minas." the Professor sighed, almost calling her by her original name before she had been modified. "You were my only creation until I had a dream one night; the dream was about a young boy swimming through the ocean without a care in the world."

"But Professor… Reploids can not dream..."

"I know." the Professor agreed dimly. "This is what made the dream fascinating to me. I knew I had to build the boy from my dream, and I'm not sure how, but he must be connected to the waters of earth. It is his destiny."

"Destiny..." Minas muttered to herself as she looked over the new Reploid. Humans could have seen a rough ten year difference between her physical age and his, the truth behind that was much longer however. Minas was built before the Elf Wars and the fall of Neo Arcadia. The age difference between the two young Reploids spanned nearly forty years and then some.

The Reploid woman placed a kind hand on her 'brother's' forehead before moving it to the side a bit to trace the standard red marker. It reminded her of a certain hero from ages long past that she almost felt sad.

"Minas..." the Professor softly spoke, placing a gentle hand at her hip as he couldn't reach much higher, "Would you like to activate him?"

Minas turned her head to look at her creator and gave a wide, cheerful smile.

. . .

 _COMMENCING START UP SEQUENCE_ …

 _BEGIN MENTAL BOOT SEQUENCE_...

MODEL IDENTIFICATION: PGAM-02

NICKNAME: Thetis

GENDER IDENTIFICATION: male

PERSONALITY IDENTIFICATION: ENFP-A

 _MENTAL BOOT SEQUENCE FINISHED_ …

 _BEGIN PHYSICAL BOOT SEQUENCE_ …

HEAD AND NECK MOVEMENT CHECK…. complete!

ARM MOVEMENT CHECK…. complete!

LEG MOVEMENT CHECK…. complete!

TORSO MOVEMENT CHECK… complete!

 _PHYSICAL BOOT SEQUENCE FINISHED_

ALERT! UNIT NEEDS EXTERNAL POWER UP SOURCE!

EXTERNAL POWER UP SOURCE IDENTIFIED

TRANSFERRING POWER DATA FROM PGAM-01 (Cinnamon) TO PGAM-02 (Thetis)...

POWER TRANSFER COMMENCING... complete!

 _RESUMING START UP SEQUENCE_ …

 _ALL CHECKS COMPLETE… ALL OPERATIONAL SYSTEMS ONLINE…_

BEGIN EYE OPENING ROUTINE…

WELCOME, Thetis…

. . .

"Did I take this long to activate?" Minas mused as she and the Professor waited for the new Reploid to open his eyes. She had been connected to the new Reploid with some wires going from her chest into his.

"Longer." the Professor informed her, expressionless in his own observations. "Due to your unique abilities and additive functions regarding FME-DNA, you took much longer just to complete the initial boot sequence. Oddly enough, your start up was more nerve racking for me than his… Perhaps it was due to you being my first complete Reploid, or the power you contained. That being said though, his start sequence _is_ a bit longer than most Reploids; admittedly, I might over equip my designs by a fraction or two at the end of the day, which causes the longer start up time."

Minas nodded, lingering on every word while still studying the new Reploid. The Professor didn't even tell her his name yet. Was he going to let her name him? That would have been great, but she knew that he already had registered the new Reploid with the Reploid Regulation Committee, which means the new Reploid already had a name. Minas wondered if the Reploid himself was going to tell her his name- she was going to love it, whatever name had been decided for this new Reploid.

To answer the Professor and Minas's waiting, the Reploid finally started to stir from his start up. Slowly, he started to sit up and trained his head to look at Minas. Seeing her sparked a reaction from him, and he inched closer toward her until there was little more than a centimeter between them.

"You're kinda pretty." he mused with a tilt of his head. "My name's Thetis. Did you power me up?"

Minas nodded, trying to prevent herself from blushing at his compliment. "It was what I was designed for. Well, helping Reploids recover was what I was designed for, but helping to power them up is no problem either."

"Cool." the new Reploid grinned. He then looked around Minas to see the Professor. "Who's that?"

"That's the Professor, he built us."

"But… he's a Reploid too. Who built him?"

"That isn't important." the Professor dismissed with a wave of his hand. "What is important is that you are fully functioning now and coherent. How do you feel?"

"Pretty good!" Thetis enthused. "But I kinda feel like.. swimming? Can I do that?"

"Of course!" the Professor agreed. "That was what I built in for you; a love of swimming. I gave you a vast knowledge of swimming techniques, sight underwater even in the darkest and murkiest of waters- I did not give you the ability to talk to sea life though, I thought that would have been too much."

"But I'm still part fish, right?" Thetis questioned, sounding so serious but was holding a rather humorous expression. The Professor couldn't tell whether he had been joking or not.

"I believe..." the Professor slowly started to say, "That you are more akin to a dolphin than a true fish; you'll still need to come up for air, depressurize, and all that."

Thetis nodded as he thought it over. So he wasn't a fish, that took some of the fun away, but he would probably be just as fast. And there was only one way to solve such a theory…

"I want to go swimming," Thetis decided, "Where can I go to do that?"

"We live in a city in the sky," the Professor started to tell him, "It will be hard to find a-"

"I know a place!" Minas exclaimed. "They just put it in Professor, it's so marvelous; it catches rain water and gathers it in one place to simulate an ocean! Oh, and they have this really fabulous beach with it too, it's so great, I'll take him if you can't Professor!"

The Professor looked at the two, each sporting a rather pitiful look that could have broken his heart.

"Yes, you may." he granted.

Thetis was so excited that he forgot for a moment that he was still connected to Minas as he leapt up from the table. "Let's go-whoa!" he declared before falling over backwards as the cable between them snapped. The young Reploid blinked up at the ceiling in a daze. The sudden disconnect must have momentarily knocked the senses out of him, Minas was looking over him, the cables connected to her now gone and her chest piece returned to normal.

"Are you alright?" she asked him while helping him stand back up again. Thetis nodded; he didn't feel dizzy, but he was… exhilarated? Was this what it felt like when something made you really happy? If so, it was very confusing.

"Let's fill you up with a bit more FME." the Professor decided. "Then you two will go."

Thetis looked at the Professor and gave another nod. Slower, Thetis decided, he needed to explore some things slower and not head first. But even that was easier said than done.


	2. Quick to Sour

Water… Aqua... H2O.

Whatever you wanted to call it, Thetis loved it. Minas didn't seem as enthused. She did try though, she didn't wade very far out though, but that was all Thetis requested of her. He knew that she wasn't quite built for underwater play like he was. He knew it would have been pretty stupid of him to force her to do something that she didn't like.

But the water just felt so _nice_ , how could she deny just one little dip?

It was because of Minas that Thetis stopped playing around in the water like a happy dolphin. Grateful as Minas was, she decided to take him around the boardwalk. There were plenty of arcade games to play, a cinema playing the latest films from around the world, and even a small carnival area with its own Ferris wheel. Minas didn't feel like playing at the moment, and Thetis was too distracted by the glass tiles on the boardwalk itself to even notice.

"What's up with all these glass tiles along the boardwalk?" Thetis curiously asked Minas, staring down at the view underneath. "Is the view inside holographic?"

"No." Minas said to him with a shake of her head. "Below us is Kirjath Arba, can you see it? It's rather large, they say that it used be a small isolated area called Area Zero some time ago. Cinq Ville is currently the center, oddly named Area C by transport services and other mail carriers. You can't see it very well from here though… You see, there are two separate areas in Kirjath Arba, the Inner and Outer; the Inner is labeled with Latin numbers and the Outer is labeled with Greek letters. The Outer is much more susceptible to Maverick outbreaks than the Inner too. It's… not a very happy place for them down there in Outer Kirjath Arba."

"What about us," Thetis then inquired, looking up at his sister, "How do we get mail and stuff when we're in the air?"

"Well, technically, a lot of the systems here are digital, so we have no need for true mail men and such. Even then, we are not considered a part of Kirjath Arba in all said and done, so if there is incoming mail from below, there is a special dock for the mail to come through while we are stationed near it."

"So this place… this city… travels all around the world?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't it?" Minas agreed with a kind grin. "It didn't use to, of course, it used to be situated in the ocean."

"The… the ocean?!" Thetis exclaimed, feeling a certain part of him die inside. "Why'd they move it?"

Minas shrugged. "I never found out." she admitted. "The Professor mentioned something about the pollution surrounding the area made it unlivable to both Reploids and humans. The solution was to raise the city into the sky. Since Reploids were the only inhabitants of the city, no one really bat an eyelash at the time."

"But…! It was in the ocean!" the Reploid boy argued. Minas gave a reserved nod and shrug.

"There could have been a real ocean here instead of collected rain water!" Thetis continued as he grew more and more disturbed at this revelation.

"The view below is worth it..." Minas mumbled, understanding that he was growing more and more angered at the situation.

"I wasn't made to be in the air!" Thetis declared. "And neither was this city at some point! Why didn't the Professor make me sooner?! I could have helped with the… the pollution! I might have been able to keep the city in the ocean! I could have… could of..."

Minas didn't say anything, instead shrinking a bit as if she knew that all of this was wrong. She was acting as if Thetis would pick something up to toss at her without a moment's hesitation. He didn't plan on hurting her, but he was very, very angry at this development.

"I'm going to put this place back in the ocean." Thetis then declared, speaking a thought more than considering it. Minas's eyes grew wide, and her body froze completely.

"You can't do that!" she told him. "The humans blocked off the area immediately after Giga City took off. All life around there is unsustainable! Believe me when I say, Thetis, that the professor did all that he could to save the area. Nothing worked. You likely wouldn't make a difference either."

Thetis looked down at the ground, the tops of the green trees in Kirjath Arba made him feel sick. "The Professor had a dream, and he built me. Maybe subconsciously, he knew his mistakes, so maybe… maybe I have the power to change what he couldn't."

"Thetis..."

"You're not going to stop me." the young Reploid asserted in a low tone. Minas knit her fingers together as if she were about to pray.

"Thetis…" she softly whispered, "I… I'm not going to stop you."

"You're not?!"

"No… but I think I know someone who will help us."

. . .

"Well Minas, I knew you were going to have a brother, but I didn't think he would be this… short." Marino teased, giving Thetis a small push on his forehead, right where his marker was. It didn't hurt the younger Reploid, but he sure didn't like it either.

According to the laws in Kirjath Arba, that slowly started to be integrated into Giga City's laws, Marino was an illegal Reploid. This meant that she didn't have a marker like Thetis did, and she didn't have a set lifespan due to that marker. On top of that, Marino was also a thief. She made a living off of stealing valuable information, then trading it off with very little compensation as reward. Minas trusted Marino, perhaps a bit too much, and considered her a friend. The more Marino teased Thetis, the less he liked of her.

"Please Marino, you have to help us." Minas begged politely. "Being in the ocean is all Thetis knows. I hate to see him this upset after being activated for a few hours. Please Marino!"

Noticing Minas's distress, Marino retracted a bit to think.

"Cleaning that ocean is going to be near impossible..." she thoughtfully informed them.

"Only because no one's tried that hard!" Thetis rebutted. Marino looked at him before placing a hand over his mouth.

"I'm not done talking yet shorty." she told him with a teasing smirk. Thetis moved out of her grip and glared at her before Marino continued, "As I was saying, cleaning that ocean is going to be near impossible. However, I was told to filch some things from this group called the Guardians awhile back. I 'accidentally' forgot to give one to the receivers because… well, I don't know why I did it. But with the current circumstances, I could easily say that it was done for a reason."

Minas and Thetis exchanged the same look before turning back to Marino. "What was it?" the Reploids asked at the same time. Marino gave them a bright smile before motioning for them to follow her. Giving each other another confused look, Minas and Thetis followed Marino to her small apartment-like home. Waiting for them on its own little platform, a light blue object floated on its own, seeming to look directly at them. Thetis made eye contact with the object and nearly froze in his spot.

' _Aren't you a cute little thing?_ ' the object seemed to gush at him, ' _I am the Biometal of the Ice, Model L._ '


	3. Biometals are Maverick

"I have no idea what it is," Marino then explained as she carefully picked the object up. "Kinda reminds me of one of those Guardians of Neo Arcadia, you know?"

"Who?" Minas inquired as she looked closer at the object. It was a pretty mystifying thing for her, however old she was, discovering new things were never boring.

"You wouldn't know, would you?" Marino questioned in return, sounding as if she had made some mistake. "See, about twenty-seven years ago there was this place called Neo Arcadia. It was led by Mega Man X (you remember him, don't you?) and four of his clone-ish children, dubbed the Four Guardians. Each of the Guardians had their own army in Neo Arcadia, and were each attune to a certain element- which kinda dictated where their armies were located. I only visited once or twice before hell broke loose and everyone in Neo Arcadia evacuated; I was caught by one of the Guardians before, Phantom I think his name was, it was truly an experience. A real… invigorating experience."

Minas looked at Marino and gave her a rather inquisitive, and accusatory, eyebrow raise.

"I'll tell you about it later." Marino informed her friend with a light blush. Minas's expression did not change.

"Can I see her?" Thetis requested, holding his hands for the Biometal, out in expectancy for Marino's compliance.

"Sure." she agreed with a shrug. Thetis carefully took Model L from Marino and looked at the Biometal closer.

"You talked to me earlier," he said to it, "Why?"

"No one was talking to you Thetis." Minas told him, both her and Marino giving him an odd look. But Thetis was ignoring them.

' _It's 'cuz I like you._ ' Model L claimed, letting out a sound like a pretty little giggle. ' _You see, we Biometals can scan folks to determine if we can MegaMerge with them._ '

"What's a MegaMerge?" Thetis then asked.

' _Oh! It's this really great thing where I get to give you a special kind of armor based on what I used to look like!_ '

"Does it hurt?" Thetis then inquired, earning Marino and Minas the right to give each other a worried glance. Who was he talking to?

"Thetis..." Minas then spoke up, causing Thetis to break his concentration with Model L to turn to his sister, "How about we show the Professor this..."

"Biometal." Thetis finished for her. "Model L is a Biometal."

"Right." Minas agreed, sounding rather unsure. "Let's go show the professor the Biometal."

Thetis nodded, clutching Model L tight and letting out a bright smile. "Sure!" he agreed. "Let's go!" And with that, he was out the door before Marino and Minas could wonder what had gotten into him.

. . .

"Biometal?" the Professor questioned, scratching his head in wonder. Thetis had been the one to explain Model L to him, but it was Minas's worried expression that informed the Professor that she feared her brother was broken. "I have honestly never heard of such a thing before. Can I take a closer look?"

"Sure!" Thetis enthused as he tried to hand Model L over to his creator. The Professor withdrew a screwdriver from behind him, while he used his other hand to hold Model L. Just barely connecting the screwdriver with the Biometal created a spark between them.

' _Ow!_ ' Model L remarked, ' _That smarts…_ '

"Don't hurt her!" Thetis quickly declared, snatching the Biometal back from the Professor. The Reploid looked at Thetis quizzically, Minas also gave a small look of confusion.

"How did you know that it hurt her?" the Professor asked Thetis, starting to grow more confused as the case went on.

"She said 'ow'!" Thetis told him defensively. "Didn't you hear her?!"

The Reploids shook their heads. They hadn't heard the Biometal say anything, so why was it that Thetis did?

' _They can't hear me because they're not Biomatches._ ' Model L just now told Thetis, much to his dismay.

"You can't hear her because you're not Biomatches..." Thetis repeated to the Professor and Minas quietly.

"I wonder if Master Albert has any idea on this matter..." the Professor wondered to himself. "Perhaps some of that data he gave me was flawed after all..."

"I'm not flawed!" Thetis exclaimed in horror. "I'm not going crazy! I'm not… I'm not Maverick!"

At this idea, everyone went silent. Thetis was getting frustrated, confused, and even more upset that the Professor and Minas didn't seem to believe him. Holding Model L tight and close to his artificial heart, Thetis spun on his heel and ran out of the room.

"Thetis…!" Minas tried to call out, but she was stopped by the Professor who only shook his head.

. . .

Meanwhile, Marino busied herself by sneaking into a research lab within Inner Kirjath Arba. There had to be something about the Biometal here that she could report back. Her hacking skills were a bit rusty, apparently. She nearly sent off a security alarm twice in the twenty minutes she had been here so far, and that was twice too many in her book. Eventually, Marino found the information she needed and downloaded it quickly so she could report back to Thetis and Minas.

Taking on one of her better disguises, Marino blended in with the crowd in town as she made her way to the transerver. Life in Inner Kirjath Arba didn't seem as lifeless as she remembered the insides of Neo Arcadia. Shop keepers with open displays shouted out their recent sale offers, bakers had some very delicious samples to give out to the masses, children played on the street with no regard for safety, among other things. Even taking into consideration the fall of Slither Inc three years ago, Inner Kirjath Arba was still a thriving place where everyone felt safe.

Marino smiled to herself from the pure energy around her as she entered the coordinates into the transerver. A bright flash of light and she was back in Giga City.

If Neo Arcadia's citizen activity could have made it seem dead, and Inner Kirjath Arba's making it almost overwhelming, then Giga City would have been placed somewhere in middle- sliding closer to Neo Arcadia. Being housed only by Reploids didn't create a need for bakers, or the tantalizing tastes and smells that came with them. Sure, some Reploids like the aesthetic, but those Reploids were severely outnumbered by those who did not. Not all Reploids had jobs around here either, again, because no one quite found the need. Sure some citizens were chosen to check on the maintenance needed to keep the city floating, but other than that? Nothing. A lot of Reploids were like the Professor- scientists, artists, and whoever else the humans didn't want.

Although Marino was a Reploid, she found them incredibly boring.

Taking a good portion of her time walking back to the Professor lab, Marino happened to spot Thetis running toward the boardwalk without anyone behind him. Confused at first, the thief decided to follow him. Thetis ran to through the boardwalk without looking behind him, finally stopping when he reached the edge of where the simulated ocean met the sand. It was his first impulse to through the Biometal into that water, but it was the feeling of Marino following from behind him that stopped him.

"Do you think I'm Maverick too?" Thetis spat at her, much to her surprise. She thought that he hadn't noticed her coming up from behind. Regardless, at his idea Marino couldn't help but snort.

"If you're Maverick then I'm human." she retorted with a confident smile. "Hey kid, you'll never guess what I found out about your new friend."

Thetis glanced behind him, using the sleeve of his sweatshirt to quickly wipe his nose. "What?" he quickly questioned.

"I'll tell you," Marino playfully informed him, "If you answer one simple question for me."

Curious now, Thetis turned all the way around to look at Marino.

"Pop quiz," she then offered, "What was the name of X Fraction Number Three, and what army did she control in which city?"

' _Oh! Oh, I know!_ ' Model L immediately piped up, ' _That's an easy one! It's me! Oh, wait, no- it's my old personality, Fairy Leviathan! I…_ she _was the leader of the Meikai Army in Neo Arcadia!_ '

"Fairy Leviathan…?" Thetis repeated slowly, "Meikai Army of… Neo Arcadia…?"

Marino's smile only grew wider. "We have a winner." she confidently smiled at him.


	4. Under Cover

The next bus to get into Giga City was running late. A transerver would have been faster, if the two had known the proper coordinates. But their leader wasn't one to make things easy for them, so why would he bother to start now?

The Reploid twins were getting antsy, to say the least, the bodies they were in -bodies they haven't been in for quite some time- was only a temporary step down from the forms the world knew them as. It was a good cover at least... until their full powers kicked back in again.

The girl Reploid sat at the bus stop hugging herself in an act of protection, while the male Reploid paced impatiently, grumbling bitter and nasty words under his breath.

"I don't like these bodies anymore." the girl Reploid shuttered, holding herself tight as if she were cold.

"We're set for calibration next year." her brother smirked at her, "Perhaps he'll let you get in a new body too. Then again, he won't delete your memories of _her_ no matter how hard you ask..."

The Reploid girl held herself tighter and shivered once again, alerting her brother that she wasn't fond of the subject in any form. He shrugged it off and looked up at the looming city, disguising itself as a mere cloud.

"If that stupid bus doesn't get here though, you might not need to worry about staying in these bodies." he then told her. "Always on time my ass. It's as if he tries to mock us every opportunity he gets. Why didn't he just give us the ability to Merge whenever like those brats? Or just teleport us there directly and skip all this nonsense altogether? If the transit takes any longer, our cover will be blown before we even touch the city's gate."

The girl Reploid looked up at the city and gave a rather slow blink up at it. "I wouldn't mind dying today." she mused in a distant tone.

"Because that body reminds you of her?" her brother huffed impatiently, tired of the reminders and his sister's moaning. "Get over it Pandora. What's done is done- and the more I hear you whine about it, the more I feel inclined to shut your trap forcefully."

"You liked her too," the Replois girl quickly uttered under her breath, "Everyone did."

The male Reploid said nothing further as they saw the bus come down. She had a point, but he wasn't going to admit that. Not willingly, any way.

. . .

"Merge! Merge! Merge! Merge!" Marino gleefully chanted to Thetis. The young Reploid fidgeted with the Biometal in his hands, shakily moving it back and forth in decision.

"Marino, don't rush him." Minas scolded like a mother. "For all we know, the Biometal could harm him. He… _we_ are all taking a leap of faith with this. What if it really hurts him?"

"It won't!" Marino shrugged off with a wave of her hand. "Besides, isn't that why we decided to make sure the Professor was here?"

The Professor himself gave a rather affirmative huff as he adjusted his goggles. "In the best case scenario, if I can peel a Biometal off of one's molecular structure..."

' _Aren't they a pleasant crowd?_ ' Model L thoughtfully declared. ' _Don't worry kid, even if they are. You've got this. I believe in you- they do too, really, they just have really odd ways of showing it._ '

Thetis looked at the Biometal before looking up at his friends. She had a point; they were all here because they cared. They were all curious about what the Biometal could do. They were all secretly waiting for the moment when the Biometal turned on Thetis and killed him.

"Alright..." Thetis calmly declared, drawing in everyone's attention, "Let's get this over with. Biometal Model L, Mega Merge!"

The Biometal started to glow as she declared, ' _Biolink established. M.E.G.A. System online!_ ' Thetis opened the palm of his hand, allowing the Biometal to thrust herself into his hand for him to hold. The Reploid reacted to the sudden force by pulling her in, close to his chest as a wave washed over him. Thetis suppressed the urge to scream as the initial wave started to close in around him, like ice freezing over, before he opened his arm again to burst out. Smiling, Thetis looked to his friends as he tried to regain his composure from the odd rush.

Their looks of astonishment made the adrenaline in Thetis wear off far too quickly, which caused a chain reaction in his core that caused him to faint.

. . .

The sighs of relief let out by the two Reploids could have almost been heard miles away. Back in the bodies that gave them so much power to abuse, the two vowed to never go back to their old bodies again willingly.

"We will destroy him for this." the male Reploid told his sister as he helped her up. "But for now we have to keep this stupid charade up until we can catch him at a weak point."

"I know." the female agreed dismally. "I know..."

"Now we need to find that stupid Biometal." the male Reploid then said, standing tall in an aura of destruction as his systems finished readjusting to his powers. "And to show that thief what we do to traitors of Legion..."

Thinking of this, the corner of the male Reploid's lips started to form a cruel smile before he let out a nerve racking, and incredibly unsettling laughter.

. . .

It could have been argued that it was that very laughter that woke Thetis up with a start. Still Merged with Model L, Thetis looked around as his mind attempted a hard reboot on his surroundings.

"You nearly wiped your energy sources clean." Minas mused to him when he had turned in her direction. "The Professor had me create a new metal just for you and Model L!"

"Ohuh…?" the young Reploid slurred as he tried to comprehend things again.

"Give him some space Min." Marino snickered. "Jesus, the kid never gets to breathe on his own around here, does he?"

"Sorry..." the Reploid girl sheepishly muttered. "I have to take care of my brother you know..."

"Doesn't mean you should suffocate him!" came the playful retort.

"I'm fine..." garbled Thetis, "Just a… bit dizzy…? And… and a really bad headache."

"The new metal might take some time to get used to." Minas agreed. "How is Model L holding up? You two didn't separate when you fainted."

' _I'm fine._ ' the Biometal said, ' _I'm a bit worried about you though, Thetis. Merging really zapped out your energy, but your sister did make a pretty great thing that seems to regulate it better now. I know a bit about Merging with hybrids, but you truly were something else._ '

"She's fine." Thetis told his sister and Marino with a lightly flushing face. "She really likes the new metal you made her."

"I made it for both of you." Minas smiled warmly. "It's kinda like a pact, a consummation of your combined wills and abilities."

' _Don't make this gross. Please…?! I mean sure, he's a cute kid and all, but geez! I'm sorry Thetis, but I'm waaay too old for you. And if you are into that sort of thing- well, God help you._ '

The Reploid let out a small chuckle as he turned to his sister.

"Thank you Minas." he graciously thanked. "I feel a lot better now, and so is Model L."

"If that's the case," Marino then decided as she walked toward the door, "Let's get going shortie. The day's almost over and we haven't even begun yet."

Thetis looked at the thief in confusion as Minas helped him get up. "Begun what?" he questioned curiously.

Marino looked back at him with a small tilt of her head and a wide, teasingly smile. "What else?" she told him. "I'm gonna help you train!"


End file.
